These programs offer participants interactive learning, superlative instructors, networking with colleagues, and engaging in discussions of key management and leadership issues. Participants will enhance their leadership and management skills while forming a collegial learning community with their peers. Enrollment in these programs is limited to provide a small group learning community of future leaders.

ICMA Gettysburg Leadership Institute

Each spring, the highly-rated ICMA Gettysburg Leadership Institute is held in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, starting with dinner on Wednesday night and ending on Friday evening. Participants stay at the historic Gettysburg Hotel. The program is limited to 30 local government executives--with special consideration given to ICMA Credentialed Managers and Candidates--who meet to study the leadership lessons of Gettysburg and join colleagues in an exploration of personal leadership, organizational effectiveness, disaster management, and the lessons of history. Much of the program takes place on the battlefield itself. 

ICMA Williamsburg Leadership Institute

Each November, local government executives gather in the Revolutionary City to become a citizen of Colonial Williamsburg and engage for three days in a highly interactive leadership study that contrasts the core values of the founding fathers (who maintained continuity of purpose during times of civil unrest and social upheaval) with today’s turbulent times. The program is limited to 25, with special consideration given to ICMA Credentialed Managers and Candidates.

Leadership lessons begin as you talk with fellow citizen Thomas Jefferson, and continue with first-hand experiences, including time in George Wythe’s classroom, of the political and cultural unrest as our nation was formed.

ICMA SEI Leadership Institute

Each April or May, the ICMA SEI Leadership Institute is held at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. The program is limited to 21 senior managers, with special consideration given to ICMA Credentialed Managers and Candidates. This institute offers seven days of intensive, interactive learning alongside 15 members of the "next-gen" Leadership ICMA class. The curriculum, designed by the faculty at UVA's Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service and Felicia Logan, ICMA's Director of Leadership Development, is varied. The faculty is well grounded in the needs and concerns of the top local government executive. You will have ample opportunity to hone skills and test strategies that can help you build a high-performance organization. This special Senior Executive Institute "super session" is a unique opportunity for you to experience the core of the regular two-week SEI program packed into seven days.

Midwest Leadership Institute

The Midwest Leadership Institute is an intensive four-and-a-half day program designed to address the challenges facing local government professionals. Participants have an opportunity to discuss many of the most challenging interpersonal leadership challenges facing local government management professionals today with two experienced local government professionals and two organizational psychiatrists who have served the profession for over 40 years. Participants will be exposed to concepts needed to thrive in an increasingly complex world with multiple personalities, competing self-interests, questionable ethics and the prominence of the information age. Sound judgment, an important concept of the Institute, will help guard against blind pathology and acting without the proper analysis.  Organizational and individual performance issues will be discussed and dissected with suggested strategies for addressing a myriad of issues.

Voluntary Credentialing Program

The ICMA Voluntary Credentialing Program is a means of defining and recognizing an individual ICMA member who is a professional local government manager qualified by a combination of education and experience, adherence to high standards of integrity, and an assessed commitment to lifelong learning and professional development. Managers are recognized by ICMA through a peer review credentialing process, and this self-directed program offers an opportunity for interested ICMA members to quantify the unique expertise they bring to their communities.

Legacy Leaders

The Legacy Leaders program honors credentialed managers who coach the next generation and support their professional development and membership in ICMA. Become a Legacy Leader by sponsoring a member of MCMI, Leadership ICMA, ELDP, or by bringing a new member to ICMA.